Euro banknotes (in English)

European Union (and participating countries)

The normal map of euro countries shows 12 countries (members of EU and
participating in euro currency, EMU). Three other small countries (not members
of EU) have an official agreement to use euro and also allowed to issue euro
coins: Monaco, San Marino, Vatican (valid in all euro countries).
Also Andorra has euro but is not allowed to issue coins. The result is 12
countries issuing notes and 15 countries issuing coins!! (and 16 countries using
euro officially). The use of euro in parts of former Yugoslavia is without any
agreement with ECB.

You can see several small maps on the backside of all notes. These show
French overseas departments (Départements d'Outre-Mer, DOM) belonging to
the European Union and using euro:

French Guyana (in mainland South America)

Guadeloupe (in the Caribbean)

Martinique (in the Caribbean)

Reunion (in the Indian Ocean)

Map of Guadeloupe and its "Dépendances" at 18°N
63°W from the European Commission:

(Iles du Nord de la Guadeloupe):

Saint Martin (the Dutch part Sint Maarten does not use euro!!)

Saint Barthélemy

Some of these departments include (Dépendances) some islands far away
from the main area (and using euro):

Saint Martin (belong to Guadeloupe)

Saint Barthélemy (belong to Guadeloupe)

Euro is also in official use in French overseas "Collectivités
Territoriales" which do not belong to the European Union but do belong
to France (looks complicated!!):

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (outside Newfoundland Canada)

Mayotte (near Comoros close to Madagascar)

French "Territoires d'Outre-Mer" (TOM) does not use euro and
will have the currency CFP francs (currency code XPF):

French Polynesia (including Tahiti)

New Caledonia

Wallis & Futuna

Monetary system

The European currency should be listed in several stages:

ECU currency 1985(?)-1998, currency code XEU. Virtual currency (basket of
national currencies). Company and state loan could be issued in ECU.

*) Uncirculated euro banknotes issued by the Banque centrale du Luxembourg
currently bear the code letter of the NCBs of those countries in which the
banknotes for Luxembourg are produced. Luxembourg was in a monetary union with
Belgium (1 BEF = 1 LUF) before the introduction of euro, so it was not used to
produce its own banknotes (although Luxembourg produced some national notes).
Luxembourg is the only EU country without any banknote printing facilities.

Originally the letter Y was reserved for Denmark and the letter W was
reserved for Greece!! All the serial # prefix was chosen in reverse order
according to the name in native language. This is still the order in all
official tables produced by the European Union. Greece was not participating
from start and both Y and W was reserved for not participating countries. Greece
joined in 2001 and was given the wrong letter Y. There can be two different
reasons:

Greece native name is sometimes “Demokratia Ellenike” (Greek coins
have “Ellenike Demokratia”) which comes before “Deutschland”, but
then Denmark was forgotten.

Greek alphabet has the letter Y=Upsilon but not W.

The last digit of the serial number is a control digit (to make the right
check sum). This is explain at Internet addresses:

The security features for the 5-20 euro notes are similar to the new Swedish
100 and 500 kronor notes from 2001: foil hologram, watermark with value in digits,
look-trough picture, small bright yellow circles on both sides of the note,
colour with different brightness dependant on viewing angle. These Swedish notes
have a 0.2 mm break in the foil in every circa 8th note.

Sweden 100 kr 2001:
Break in foil between lower
Three Crowns

Sweden 500 kr 2002:
Break in foil below 500
Small yellow circles all over the note
Look-through picture: half circle will form 500

Question to euro note owner: Have you seen any similar break in the foil on
any 5-10-20 euro note? The break looks black when You tilt the note to see the
hologram in its rainbow colour. If You tilt the note much more and see a
metallic surface, then the break is extremely bright (brighter than the rest of
the foil).

AB Tumba Bruk banknote printing office (and paper mill) did make test production of 20 €
notes before the new Swedish 100-500 kronor notes were designed. The euro
printer code is C for Tumba Bruk. It is now part of Crane & Co, Dalton,
Massachusetts, USA (manufacturer of banknote paper for US Bureau of Engraving
and Printing). The name of the company is changed to Crane AB (still located in
Tumba, south of Stockholm).

Printer Code (6 characters)

You can see a “printer code” (short code with 6 characters) on the front side
of the note (somewhat difficult to see). The three links above explain that the
left letter in the “Short code” tells the name of the printer. Several printers
may be used for each serial # prefix. Examples of this are “D001D4”, “R002D5”,
“P001G5”. I have investigated two databases on Internet (links listed above) and
found the following printer code used for each banknote. Some notes have two
different printers (the percentage for each is listed). The databases have some
wrong information, but I have tried to not list random notes. High value
(200-500 €) notes may not exist for all countries, but new information indicates
that these notes do exist in small quantities (name of printer is still
unknown). I have put a question mark (?) for these notes.

Country

Serial # prefix

5 €
printer

10 €
printer

20 €
printer

50 €
printer

100 €
printer

200 €
printer

500 €
printer

Belgium

Z

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

Greece

Y

N 25 %
P 75 %

F 50 %
N 50 %

N

G 40 %
N 60 %

G 70 %
P 30 %

R

?

Germany

X

P

R

P

P 30 %
R 70 %

P

R

R

Spain

V

M

M

M

M

M

T

T

France

U

L

L

E 25 %
L 75 %

L

E 60 %
P 40 %

T

T

Ireland

T

K

K

H 65 %
K 35 %

K

K

?

?

Italy

S

J

J

J

J

J

J

J

Luxembourg

(R)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Netherlands

P

G 75 %
P 25 %

G 20 %
P 80 %

G

G

G

G

F

Austria

N

F

F

F

F

F

G

F

Portugal

M

U

U

U

H

P

?

?

Finland

L

D

D

D

D 40 %
H 60 %

D

D

D

Uncirculated euro banknotes issued by the Banque centrale du
Luxembourg currently bear the code letter (serial # prefix) of the NCBs
(National Central Bank) of those countries in which the banknotes for Luxembourg
are produced.

Printer code character 2-4

It is possible that this is the printing plate number, numbered 001, 002,
003, etc.

Printer code character 5-6

I am convinced that this is the “Position code” in the printing sheet.
The code has a letter + digit (A1, D3, I5, H2, etc.). You can also see a similar
“position number” hidden in the serial number, but this is very complicated, with
different digits for all countries and all printers. I have listed a few
examples on my home page (in Swedish) but the essence of it could be understood:
positions-nr.
Reservations for error because I stopped writing these tables before I had
investigated all notes.